The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hey gang,

I'm in the middle of trading a 46 farmal H with loader that has been freshly paint for a fordson super major that is not running.

he said that it just died out of no where, I'm thinking its the lift pump. I know that in my 91 5.9 cummins this happened, driving along and out of no where dead. when i was looking at it I asked him to give it a shot of starting fluid so I could make sure it would run, and it popped off and ran for a little bit.

now where my question comes in, I read on here I believe that the major's were later on sold as a 5000 and ford gave fordson all ford diesel engines. If that is true, what model motor did ford give them? mainly wanted to know in case if I needed pump work done then I thought that it might make it a little easier for me to do so.

Another thing i noticed is that the Major normally had the throttle down by the right knee correct? this one has a lever there but isn't hooked to anything and has the normal ford tractor throttle location like on a 9n or 4000 5000 tractor right by the steering. any know know if they had that for a little bit on the very last ones? it didnt look like they did anything to change it and they said they've never changed it.

I need to finish painting mine up and then I'll have this one. I was thinking about ordering a lift pump and putting it in at his place but I don't want to put it in and then have it running and have them try to back out of the deal... just make loading it on the trailer a lot easier i guess

thanks for the help.

First check if there is any fuel in the tank.
Next make sure the fuel cock is open.
Then open the bleed on the fuel filter and work the lift pump by hand. There is a manual lever on the bottom of the lift pump. It should push fuel out the bleed.
Next bleed the injector pump. Now try starting.

For Non-Minimec (vacuum governor) injector pump


For Minimec (mechanical governor) injector pump


The throttle lever on the Super Major goes down the right side of the steering column and operates a bell crank. This style throttle was introduced in 1958 with the Power Major and continued until the end in 1964 with the Super Major New Performance/Ford 5000. In 1965 Ford completely changed the 5000. They are not the same tractor.

There is also a filter in the fuel tap that can block (usually when you have a full tank of fuel so it all runs down your arm as you remove it)

From what you say about the throttle positions you may be looking at a Fordson ASP (All Spare Parts).

The engine in a Fordson Major, Super Major and Super Major 5000 was a Fordson designed unit and manufactured here in England, it was totally different from the ones fitted in the US tractors. The engine was used in combine harvesters, trucks, boats and almost any industrial application that needed a diesel engine. Many, many thousands were built. They are known for their easy starting, even when worn out, it is said that even on the coldest day the engine only has to turn over one cylinder to fire up. This is a slight exaggeration but it is fairly close to the truth.

Under No 1 injector is a flat area, it will have a number stamped there, also, on all cast parts are numbers like "A15B", these are the date codes the parts were made and they are usually within a few days of the tractors build date. If you look here,

http://www.fordsontractorpages.nl/wiki/ ... ePage.html

use the code words "fordsontractorpages" and "dotty", not your usual logging in codes, you will find an article on "Identifying your Major". There are pictures that show the location of all the codes.

Once you have the codes we can date the tractor/parts and tell you what you really have. Throughout the tractor's life there were many changes and you need to know the dates to get the right, specific, information.